Chaos
has taken over, wreaking havoc not only across the globe but also
throughout Heaven and Hell. The next apocalyptic seals have been
breached, and the leaders of the ethereal realms are paying the
price. With tensions high and defenses at an all-time low, Polly,
Lenny, and Drew continue to hunt down the evil behind it all.
Millennia-old secrets rise to the surface, testing friendships and
pushing loyalties to their breaking points.

With
the clock ticking and uncertainty in the air, will enough time remain
to unravel a curse that the darkest of forces have Cast in Fire?

Polly’s
fist smacked into the demon’s nose with a loud crunch. “What did
you do?”

“Nothing,
I swear! I had nothing to do with the angelite or the djinn escaping,
honest, Apollyon.” Frank backed his large self up against the break
room wall trying to escape the angry Knight.

“I
have a hard time believing that, since the hellhound who just tracked
your ass confirms you as being in the room where someone killed my
prisoner.”

As
if on cue, the massive beast growled at Frank from behind Polly, its
huge face covered in thick tufts of oily, black fur. The dog’s eyes
glowed a shade brighter in its anger and flames licked out of his
orbital cavity. His giant, razor sharp teeth and thick, talon-like
claws were sharp enough to rip into any type of prey. The hellhound’s
skin was as hard as stone and its breath reeked of sulfur. Its growl
was so loud it rattled Frank’s chest and his terror only served to
feed the beast.

“I
swear I had nothing to do with that. I went looking for you and found
your door open. The djinn was already dead, honest. When I saw he’d
ingested angelite I got the hell up out of there and grabbed a cup of
coffee.” Blood flowed in light rivulets down either side of the
goat-like demon’s ruined nose.

He
looked wistfully at the pieces of his broken mug on the floor. The
little orange kitten hanging from the tree was still visible though
the rest of the mug was pretty smashed up. Its message, “Hang in
there,” was lost forever in a mess of ceramic shards.

“Tell
me the truth, Frank, or I’ll let Shuck here eat you for lunch.”
Polly growled and pointed at the hellhound, who gave a light roar.

“Come
on, Polly, I am telling you the truth.”

“Did
you see anyone enter or leave my office when you came?”

“No….
Wait, yeah, actually, I did. Lucy was there.”

“What?”

“I
saw Lucy leave your office before I got there. I called a hello but
she just walked away.”

“Dammit,
Frank, that wasn’t Lucy. I saw her before I left my office to talk
to Bis. She was heading for her own office.”

“She
could have doubled back.”

“No,
she was already in her office moments after I discovered the djinn
dead. That’s good, though, it tells me whoever is smuggling the
angelite in can shapeshift.”

“So,
you’re done beating me?”

“Yes.
For now.”

“Aw,
man, I was rather enjoying that.”

Polly
patted Frank’s arm. “I’ll buy you a new mug.”

“Yeah,
you will.”

“Excuse
me?”

“I
mean, uh, thanks, Polly.” The big demon grinned sheepishly and
walked to the counter for paper towels. He grabbed a few and used
them to clean up the blood from his mangled sniffer.

“Don’t
forget to clean up the mug when you’re done.”

“No
worries, I’ll clean it up.”

Polly
conjured up a full slab of ribs and presented it to the hellhound.
“Here you go, Shuck. Who’s a good boy? Who’s a good ol’ big
boy?”

The
giant black stump of a tail began wagging and the hound dug into the
ribs with a lusty appetite. When it was finished the hellhound wiped
its sauce covered muzzle on Polly’s leg and she laughed and
scratched his ears.

“Frank,
I want you to look into the angelite.” When the demon started to
speak Polly interrupted him, “I know you’ve got a few tortures on
your plate today but I want you digging into this.”

“Why
me?” Frank gave a sigh as he dropped the remains of his second
favorite mug in the trash. Polly felt bad for the poor fellow; that
was the third mug of his that had been broken that month.

“Because
if you ask, they’ll wonder if you saw the true form of whomever it
was that killed my prisoner.”

“Oh,
so I’m pretty much just bait here?”

“If
you need a fancy term for it.”

“I
hate being bait,” Frank whined.

“Suck
it up, buttercup.”

“You
owe me for this, Polly. Not just a new kitty mug, though you owe me
that too, but I want a vacation after this. Three weeks, somewhere
cold, maybe even frozen.”

“You
help me find my dirty double-crossing demons and you have a ticket to
anywhere you want, Frankie.”

“Don’t
call me Frankie; my name is Frank.”

“You
need to loosen up.”

“Apollyon,
you assaulted me in the break room and broke my favorite mug. I am
feeling a little violated by you right now. If I can be honest
here….” At her shrug he continued, “You and your friends have
been awful hard on me as of late and I really don’t feel
comfortable with it.”

“You
mean the shifter and succubus you tried to torture?” Polly snorted
incredulously.

“I
wasn’t trying to torture them. I was just trying to get to know the
succubus a bit better and they attacked me, honest!”

“Frank,
did you put your hands on Drew without her permission?”

“Yeah,
but—”

“No
buts. You didn’t like that they fought back, am I right?”

“Well,
I expected them to fight back, but I didn’t expect them to gang up
on me and beat me up. I felt so violated.”

“Frank,
when you attack a woman, you ought to expect they’ll fight back.
Whining that they did, and that they kicked your demon ass, is not
going to help your cause. You got what you deserved, buddy.” Polly
conjured up a video monitor and showed him the whole attack.

“Oh,
I guess I probably seemed threatening to them. I promise I wasn’t
really going to hurt them.”

“Doesn’t
matter, Frank. Your intentions, good or bad, no longer matter when
you touch someone without their consent.”

“I’ll
try to do better.”

“Please
do. Hey, when you’re torturing a soul go nuts, do whatever you
want, that’s why they’re here. Be safe in the knowledge that they
deserve the torture. If you’re in the break room, those rules do
not apply. Here, you use the same decorum you would show in Lucy’s
presence.”

“Lucifer
is the Queen of Hell. Those were lowly half-breeds.”

“Doesn’t
matter. Guests of the realm are to be treated as royalty, capice?”

“I
understand.”

“Good
boy.” Polly conjured up a blue mug with a picture of a grumpy
looking cat and text that read “Just say no…to Mondays.”

“Aw,
I love it! Thanks, Polly.” Frank hugged his new mug tightly.

“I’ll
see you later. Be sure to look into this, Frank.”

“I
will! I love my new mug.” When Polly looked up she saw he was
already washing it in the sink and eyeing the coffee pot excitedly
while softly humming “Let it Go … Let it Go….”

She
smiled and said, “Later, make sure you behave yourself.”

Frank
held up a sudsy hand and waved in response. Polly left the break room
shaking her head. For being the best torture master Hell had, Frank
sure was a softie about his kitten mugs.

About
Jaime Johnesee

Jaime
Johnesee lives in Michigan with her husband and two sons. She spent
fourteen years as a zookeeper before shifting her focus to writing
full time. Widely known for her bestselling horror comedy series, Bob
the Zombie, she is currently coauthoring the paranormal horror
series, Revelations, for Devil Dog Press as well as working on her
Shifters series.

Lisa
Lane has been writing dark speculative fiction for over twenty years.
She has ten published novels and dozens of published short stories
written under genre-specific pseudonyms. She is married to editor
Thomas B. Lane, Jr. and currently resides in the outskirts of Sin
City.

Christine
Sutton is the author of more than fifteen short stories, novellas and
novels. While she tends to cross genres within horror, she is always
passionate about scaring the hell out of you.

Her
passion would have to be serial killer fiction, but she also loves
ghosts, ghouls, demons and monsters of all types. Christine's work
ranges from modern day fairy tales to demonic soul eaters to ghostly
children that just want to play. Her writing has been called
passionate, realistic, gritty, fun, enthralling and tons of other
cool adjectives.

You
too can pick up some of Christine's work and come up with some cool
adjectives of your own. It won't be hard. I promise.